The Investor’s View: The Hard Lessons for Fintech Founders Who Want to Raise Funding

When we sit down with founders, one question comes up again and again: What does it take to raise capital in today’s environment?

Over the past few years, APAC fintech investments have swung between extremes. The early 2020s saw exuberant venture capital fueled growth at all costs, with investors rewarding speed over discipline. Today, the pendulum has swung back.

Deal flow is down and check sizes are smaller. This means that capital now concentrates in the highest-conviction bets, and many borderline ventures are simply passed over.

The bar is higher. Capital is tighter, valuations are scrutinized, and there’s far less tolerance for experiments without a clear path to profitability.  

And yet, paradoxically, we believe the opportunity in fintech startups has never been greater. That may sound counterintuitive, but this is the tension we live with every day as investors: how do we stay disciplined while still making bold bets on the future? How do we separate signal from noise in one of the world’s fastest-moving startup landscapes?

If you’re building a company and looking to secure investment — whether from us or other VCs — here’s what you need to know.

‍Stop Using Buzzwords, Go Back to Business Fundamentals

Not long ago, investors could afford to back broad “AI plays” or yet another digital payments startup, betting that abundant capital and acquisition-driven exits would mask structural weaknesses. That tolerance has evaporated. We are once again anchored in three fundamentals.

Traction shows whether the business model resonates with the market.

It’s the single clearest signal of health. Fancy decks and compelling visions are nice, but numbers don’t lie. We want to see evidence that the market cares. That evidence can take many forms: consistent revenue growth, low churn, high repeat usage, or even strong waitlist momentum. The key is not just raw numbers, but proof of engagement that’s durable rather than cosmetic.

Team quality ensures execution capacity.

At the earliest stages, the team matters more than anything else. Have they built before? Do they have the network and grit to survive the inevitable pivots? The strongest teams de-risk by surrounding themselves with complementary talent and showing founder–market fit, a personal edge or lived experience that makes them uniquely qualified.

Market size determines the ceiling for expansion.

We ask ourselves: if this works, how big can it get? Market size is the ceiling on the entire story. Many successful startups start by winning a small niche, then broaden their scope through adjacencies. Think beachhead, then breakout.

Remove one, and the growth equation collapses. It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often founders lose sight of these fundamentals. Technology can be dazzling, but in the end, we’re not investing in ideas — we’re investing in businesses.

Shift Toward Vertical Plays

Take artificial intelligence. Early bets often funded generalist AI startups chasing too many applications and promised to “do everything.” Today, we — and many VCs — favour verticalized solutions: those that solve a narrow but high-value problem for a clearly defined customer.

Success comes from focus. We’ll give you two examples from our recent portfolio. ZOLO is focused on F&B supply chains, where inefficiencies eat into already thin margins. EarlyBird AI is tackling accounting automation, a pain point for small businesses everywhere.

Neither won us over because of flashy algorithms. They did so because they are solving one very specific job that desperately needs doing. This reflects the popular "jobs-to-be-done" framework. Customers don’t simply buy a product or service — they “hire” it do a “job”, and the real wins come from hiring people or products that can do a better job than anyone else.

So while it’s tempting to spread yourself thin across many possibilities, the lesson is clear: technology itself is rarely the differentiator. Competitive advantage lies in clarity of the problem solved and precision of customer fit.

If you haven’t yet made the shift to a vertical play, start by asking: What is the single most painful, most valuable problem we can solve for one defined segment? Cut scope until your solution becomes indispensable. Expansion can come later.

Play the Geography Game

Another lesson we’ve learned is that geography is strategy.  

APAC's potential remains high: a patchwork of advanced hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong, and emerging economies such as India, Vietnam, and Indonesia, each with distinct opportunities.

The region's diversity makes geographic strategy paramount. For example, in emerging markets, business models built around serving SMBs often face headwinds: low earning potential, low willingness to pay, and high default rates. It’s not that financial inclusion isn’t important; it’s that without sound unit economics, the business just isn’t sustainable.

By contrast, in hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong, the dynamics flip. Here, SMBs show greater willingness to pay, but churn becomes the critical challenge. Retaining customers in competitive, sophisticated markets is often harder than acquiring them.

Here, the idea of fit with local context applies. A strategy that succeeds in one geography may falter elsewhere if the economics don’t align. So we’ve stopped asking “Does this business model work?” in the abstract. Instead, we ask: “Does it work in this market, with these economics, right now?”  

For startups expanding regionally, the takeaway is not simply to “localize” a product but to re-engineer the business model itself for each market’s economic realities. Adaptation isn’t optional, it’s existential.

Where are we most excited? Geographically, we’re particularly bullish on India and Australia. India has the scale and talent, while Australia has strong fintech innovation. Korea and Japan are also on our radar, thanks to their AI depth, though raising capital there requires a very local approach.

Your Distribution Strategy Beats Technology

Another hard truth: technology isn’t a moat anymore. What separates winners from everyone else is distribution — how effectively a company gets into the hands of customers. The strongest determinant of success is not product superiority but distribution excellence.

We often tell founders: don’t fall in love with your product, fall in love with your distribution strategy. Who are your ICPs? What channels give you an edge? In today’s market, the best product without distribution is invisible. The “good enough” product with great distribution wins every time.

In practical terms, this means startups must obsess over channels, partnerships, and customer acquisition economics. Map the cost-effective, highest-impact ways to reach them, and constantly measure your CAC against lifetime value LTV. Nothing reveals fragility in a model faster than bad unit economics.

The Leadership Imperatives We’ve Learned

So, what do we tell founders over Teams or coffee when they ask how to navigate today’s market? Three principles stand out:

Treat fundraising as strategy, not administration.  

Fundraising is a full-time job. You can’t treat it as an afterthought. Preparing data rooms, refining your story, and managing investor queries takes as much discipline as running your business.

Balance ambition with discipline.  

In volatile markets, founders must resist hype-driven pursuits and instead ground strategies in demonstrable demand. If you’re not cash-strapped, double down on sales and revenue. That pipeline is what investors (and customers) will care about next.

Invest in visibility as a competitive edge.  

Tenity’s prominence stems not just from active deal-making but also from the partnership and thought leadership opportunities we actively explore. The same applies to startups. Work hard to stay present in the ecosystem. Show up at founder-focused events, and network with your peers and experts in your domain. In a crowded market, being seen compounds.

Where We Believe the Next Wave Lies

If you’re looking to take a bold swing, it’s better to snipe than to spray and pray. Three themes excite us:

AI-driven solutions to modernize legacy systems

AI is undoubtedly changing how big institutions run. Think lending, insurance, compliance, KYC — all those essential but often outdated functions. We believe the real advantage isn’t in tearing out entire systems, but in upgrading what’s already there. It’s about enhancing these systems without the disruption and downtime of full replacements, delivering solutions that raise capability while blending seamlessly.  

Shieldbase AI, from our portfolio, is a great example. It unifies fragmented data from enterprise AI tools and legacy systems into streamlined, automated workflows. The real story isn’t about chasing novelty — it’s about embedding AI and related tech into existing infrastructure, so the impact is both accessible, measurable, and scalable.

Agentic AI for under-digitized industries

We’re particularly excited about agentic AI in industries still reliant on outdated or manual processes. These systems don’t just assist — they act, adapt to context, and deliver outcomes with minimal human oversight.  

The most promising opportunities lie in automating narrow but critical end-to-end workflows, like back-office operations or repetitive, high-volume tasks, where value can be created immediately without the need for a full system overhaul.

The founders who succeed in this space usually pair deep industry expertise with sharp operational insight. That combination allows them to design solutions that resonate with customers and scale effectively within their vertical.

Embedded finance meets decentralized automation

We’re also keeping a close eye on embedded finance — integrating services directly into the platforms where users already spend their time, whether in marketplaces or SaaS tools. When powered by smart contracts and blockchain, these capabilities unlock new possibilities for cross-border payments, lending, and fundraising.

Coupled with regulatory clarity around stablecoin usage, these processes can be automated in a secure and transparent way, reducing friction and lowering costs for users. The real opportunity lies in designing models where trust and efficiency are built into the transaction by default.

Balancing Imagination and Rigor

The frontier of fintech investment and fintech is not simply a story of venture bets. It is a broader lesson in how startups need to operate when uncertainty is high and capital is scarce. The winners won’t be those who move the fastest, but those who build not just for the next round, but for the next decade.

For us as a VC, it’s about balance. On one side, we need imagination: the courage to bet early on ideas. On the other, we need rigor: anchoring those bets in traction, strong teams, and scalable markets.

That’s the challenge we’d leave you with. Whether you’re a founder building your first product or contemplating your next move, ask yourself: Are we chasing hype, or are we solving a real problem with discipline?

As we’ve emphasized, funding rounds today are more costly and time-consuming, with extended diligence and negotiation. Put your best foot forward by mastering the fundamentals.

Those who master traction, verticalization, and distribution — while tailoring strategies to local market dynamics — will not only earn VC attention, but also help shape the financial infrastructure of the next decade.